Hot Mama Noi's Thai

Terrible Attitude and Service

This place is a joint. Have not had much opportunity to judge the food as management thinks keeping clients waiting for an hour to be servied is acceptable. The one dish I tried was the Pad Thai and that was nothing special. On visiting a second time, I ordered Green Curry to go. After waiting an hour, I left. To me service and ambiance are important when I go out for a meal. This place has neither good service nor pleasant surroundings. It works better as a take out service where you can sit in your own home and you don't care if they take two hours to send you an order. I won't be going back. My choice for Thai in Pickering is the Red House--pleasant surroundings, pleasant service, good food.

This place was recommended to us by friends who said it was good thai food and they were absolutely correct! My wife popped by after getting off the GO train and ordered 2 take out dishes. She said she was greeted warmly by a young man who also went back to cook the food fresh! The service was fast and the food was delicious! Actually, it was the best tasting pad thai I have ever had! At other places, the flavour and colouring is consistent with catsup and I never enjoyed pad thai that much becuase of this. This pad thai had a lot of flavour. The sauce was rich and the noodles were cooked to perfection. The chicken dish we had was equally as good. The portions were plentiful enough that we had leftovers for lunch the next day! I am definitely going to order from there again...sooner than later!

Worst Customer Service EVER

My husband and I went to Hot Mama Noi's for dinner, with our 3 year old daughter. We ordered a large soup, and three other dishes, for a total of four dishes to be eaten by three people (one a small child). I asked the waitress for plates so we could share the food out, and she told us it would be $3.50 a plate since they didn't allow "sharing". After speaking to the owner's adult children who were running the place, and having them call the owner (Hot Mama, I assume), we were given the same answer. "Too bad, no sharing, our prices are so cheap and our portions so large, so you cannot share". Queue additional crying and moaning coming from the kitchen about how "those people" want to share, our prices are so cheap, don't they know we don't make any money, blah, blah, blah. Through our entire meal. All in all we spent $44 on four dishes of average size and taste for two and a half people, but were expected to pay an addition $10.50 to serve it out family style. Seriously. Needless to say, we will NEVER return to Hot Mama Noi's even though the food was passable (for Pickering only). We will likely continue to drive to downtown Toronto for Thai. It's a shame.

Above and beyond Authentic delicious food!

My Brother and I myself have been coming to this restaurant for the past year. We've both spent time in Thailand training in their National sport of Muay Thai so we know authentic Thai cuisin!! Thai people are also known for their smiles and fun personalities and it's the same thing you find when you enter the doors of Hot Mama Noi's. The food is above and beyond delicious and very quick! If you walk into this restaurant without a smile Noi will send you out and ask you to walk back in with a smile!! You leave with one too! great food great family! I know live in Ottawa running a restaurant and this is the only place I eat when i come to the area to visit family! Great Job Nan and Noi! This restaurant is the best!!

Everyone must try at least once

I started going to Mama Noi's kitchen in the first month of them opening. My boxing club had just moved to a new location in the same plaza. I coach beginners to learn boxing as well as compete as a fighter at an amateur level. I have a neccessity to make weight for my fights and I was weighing 185 lbs. after a long and full summer of fun. I was determined to lose the weight and get back to my 150lbs. frame. I was in the gym every day it was open (6 times/week) and I also played hockey 4 times a week. At first it was a lot but your body adapts to the stress, but I wasn't losing the weight. I talked to Mama Noi, who used to cook for the Thai fighters in Thailand, and she put me on the vegetarian glass noodle diet with chicken once a week. I ate there everyday between January and March 2010, she even made me a special meal when she was closed on Sundays. I lost 35 lbs. no problem, everyone I knew noticed and congratulated me on my success. The food tastes great and it's fresh and healthy too. I started watching Mama Noi's daily routine, believe me she does not stop. Every morning at 8am she is there getting the restaurant ready for the day and the 2 hour break that she takes between 3 and 5pm each day is spent shopping for and chopping fresh produce. I can not believe the amount of blood and sweat that her and her family put into this restaurant and the outcome speaks for itself. Everyday at lunch is packed and the whole staff is go-go-go for about 2 hours straight. the feedback that I have observed(ease-dropped) from the customers is that this is the best Thai food in the city. The place is definitely a family run business and the casual atmosphere tells you that noone is coming back to Hot Mama Noi's for the look of the restaurant, maybe for the good-looking staff, but for the great taste, service and customer appreciation that you will receive everytime you step inside that door. The restaurant seems to be doing well and for a location that has had such unsuccess in the past with it's previous tenants, this tenant will be here to stay. I recently visited Thailand to embrace more of the culture and to find out where Mama Noi came from and what makes her tick. She grew up in the North-east part of Thailand and worked very hard every day of her life. Her family was forced into the jungle during the Vietnamese war and that is where Mama Noi got her keen sense of culinary arts. Having to cook everything and anything and still make it taste good, has left her with the ability to make you drool from ten blocks away. I visited her home town as well as many other villages and of course, the big city of Bangkok. I tried Pad Thai, Pad See Ewe, Noodle soup, Spring Rolls and many other Thai dishes. I can honestly say that the best Thai food to this day that I have ever tasted is in my home town of Pickering, Ontario at 1410 Bayly St. in Mama Noi's kitchen. I can only hope that I will be able to enjoy Mama Noi's great food for the rest of my life and that you will come try it too.

Mama Noi knows her way around the kitchen

I joined my friend, Vic, there (finally) after she had raved about this place a number of times. I was a bit skeptical about the place. As a former GO Train commuter, I have seen many former dining establishments (none noteworthy) come and go in that location, the plaza next to GO. But Vic knows her food and good value for it and I was hungry for some real Thai food. She was right again - great authentic food at very reasonable prices and even better it's a small, family run restaurant. As a local, I think it's important to support our mom and pop shops, as they generally are in it for the love of it and work very hard, long days to please and keep their customers. This is the case at Hot Mama Noi's. When Mama came out of the kitchen to see how we were and if we liked the meal - she was sweating after a marathon lunch time cookathon. While there we talked to a regular, who gave us some suggestions for future meals. My initial impression upon entering was trying to identify that wonderful smell coming from the kitchen and wondering if I would order that. It's a small place with very basic no nonsense clean decor, so you know people come here for the food, as if my nose didn't already tell my brain that! After the initial inhalation is processed my brain starts working again after imaging what Mama is cooking up for whoever got there before me - and I stop drooling! It did not take us long to decide to share an order of Veggie Spring Rolls (most likely they will become a regular at each meal, unless in future visits, I find something I like more for an appetizer). I really enjoyed my Beef Penang, although I make it a little less spicy for my home taste. I love the taste of real Thai Basil and very few restaurants go to the effort of using it, but instead use the more available Basil one uses in Italian dishes - good, but not good enough once you taste and cook with real Thai Basil. Not Mama Noi - her Thai Basil was so fresh in this dish, I meant to check out back to see if she has a garden plot and grows her own. Vic ordered a meal sized soup to go with her Spring Rolls and although it was delicious (of course, I tried some, just can't remember the name), she just could not finish all of it. No problem, they packed her leftovers up for her lunch the next day. Although we both love our desserts, we were so full, we didn't even think of anything for afters. All in all, it was a great experience and I will be going back to try more once Mama returns from her visit to Thailand. I wish Mama much success and if you love real Thai food at reasonable prices, do head over.